Archive for May, 2010
Free Mini BBQ Box worth £10
May 28th, 2010 | 
Author: On your marks, get set…grill!
From the 31st May to 6th June, it’s National Barbeque Week, so what better excuse to get grilling (weather permitting!).
To celebrate, we’re giving away our new mini bbq box – free* with any order!
To get your free box…
1. Order before 13th June
2. Enter code NATBBQ
*Terms and Conditions:
Offer can only be redeemed once per address or account holder. Valid until 13th June 2010. Not valid in conjunction with any other offer except price discounts. No cash alternative. We reserve the right to refuse or restrict orders.
This year we have lots of new exciting flavours to explore with our expert butcher Moen and Sons:
- beef burgers made with quality Scottish steak
- award winning hand-made sausages
- Moroccan spiced lamb koftas
- delicious porchetta steaks
There’s much more in our special BBQ shop.
Recipe: BBQ Spatchcock Chicken
1.2kg Spatchock Chicken
Water or Beer to baste
2 Lemons to serve
For the Marinade:
4 tbsp Olive Oil
2 tsp Paprika
2 Garlic Cloves
Juice and zest of a Lemon
Salt and Pepper
OR instead try Busha Browne’s Jerk Sauce
If you are making your own marinade, mix together 3 tbsp oil, crushed garlic cloves, the zest and juice of a lemon and the paprika. Add some salt and pepper and brush over the skin of the chicken.
If using one of our ready made marinades, follow the pack instructions.
Leave to marinade in the fridge for 40 minutes.
Once your barbeque is nice and hot, cook the chicken on each side for 5 minutes in the middle of the barbeque. Then move to the side for a gentler heat and continue cooking. Turn regularly and baste in between with some water or beer.
To check if it’s cooked, pierce the fattest section (between the thighs and breast bone). The liquid should run clear and the flesh should be white.
Now take it off the heat, cover in foil and leave to rest for 15 minutes. Serve in portions with a drizzle of lemon juice, salt and pepper.
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Stuffed Friggitelli Peppers
The friggitelli pepper is a wonderful small green pepper common in Southern Italy. Despite appearences, i’t’s not spicy, but full of flavour with a touch of sweetness. “Friggitelli” means “for frying” and we won’t argue with that! They are particularly delicious fried until soft and then sprinkled with sea salt and when stuffed will make a great antipasti…
12 Friggitelli
6 Anchovy Fillets
1 Bunch of Parsley, Minced
1 tbsp. Capers in Salt
1 Clove of Garlic
8 tbsp. Breadcrumbs
Zest of Half a Lemon
Olive Oil for Frying
Salt and Pepper
Ground Chilli
Mince the parsley, garlic, and lemon zest together. Mix in the capers (rinsed and finely chopped), breadcrumbs, and anchovy fillets (chopped).
If you like, you can add some ground chillies to the mix, to spice it up.
Wash the peppers, dry them with a cloth, and make a slit down each to extract the seeds and ribs. Fill them with the stuffing and press the lips of the cut back into place.
Heat enough oil to almost cover the peppers in a non-stick pot. When it’s hot fry them, with the cut side facing up, for about 5 minutes. Drain them well on absorbent paper, salt them lightly, and serve hot.
Scallops and Spinach Broth
Scallops are a lovely dish for spring. Their succulent texture and sweet flavours are perfectly refreshing. Try them in this tasty spinach broth for a light and sophisticated lunch.
12 Scallops
Salt
120ml Fish stock
200ml Creme Fraiche
500gr Fresh spinach
100ml Double Cream
2 Egg yolks
Juice of 1 Lemon
Chopped tomatoes to garnish
Cut the scallops into slices, 5mm thick, and place in a buttered frying pan. Add salt and the fish stock, poach for 2 minutes, then remove and drain.
Add the crème fraiche to the stock and reduce it until it is the consistency of a light soup. Add the chopped spinach and heat for 2 minutes.
Then bind with a mixture of the double cream, the egg yolks and the lemon juice. Add the scallop slices and adjust the seasoning.
Serve in hot dishes garnished with hot roughly chopped tomatoes.
Watercress Week
Celebrating this nutritious leaf
This week our favourite peppery green is in the limelight – beautiful, fragrant, intense watercress. If ever a leaf deserved a bit of attention, it’s this fantastic salad! Watercress is absolutely jam packed with nutrients, with over 15 vitamins and minerals and more vitamin C gram for gram than oranges.
British and French watercress is fantastic at this time of year, harvested from pure spring water for that uniquely refreshing taste.
Looking for your watercress fix?
Add it to home-made mayonnaise and serve with fish.
Try it in Jane Clarke’s asparagus and San Daniele salad.
Get refreshed with our courgette and watercress soup.
Or read on to find out how to make a delicious watercress sauce.
Recipe: Watercress Sauce
Delicious with fish
25g Butter
2 Shallots
1 Stick of Celery
1/2 Glass Dry White Wine
75ml Vegetable Stock
1 Bay Leaf
150ml Double Cream
170g Watercress
Melt the butter and add the shallots, finely chopped. Add finely chopped celery and fry gently until tender (about 3 minutes).
Add the wine, stock and bayleaf and simmer for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove the bay leaf.
Pour in the cream and chopped watercress. Heat through and season with salt and pepper.
If preferred, liquidise before serving.
This is fantastic drizzled over salmon, cod or other white fish.
Fagioli all’uccelletto
Discover our plump and creamy fresh borlotti beans in this fantastic stew…
5 tbsp of Olive Oil
Sprig of Fresh Sage
2 Garlic Cloves crushed
250gr Ripe Fresh Tomatoes, peeled and chopped
800gr cooked and drained Borlotti Beans
Salt and Freshly Ground Black Pepper
Pod the borlotti beans and boil until soft. Drain. Heat the olive oil in a flameproof earthenware pot. Throw in the sprig of sage and crushed garlic cloves and sautee for a minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for 20-25 minutes until the oil separates from the tomato juices.
Mix in the borlotti beans. Season with salt and pepper and continue cooking for 15 minutes or so.
These beans are good served hot, warm or cold, but never chilled.
The beans can be stewed with or without the tomatoes. If you like them au naturel, simply omit the tomatoes and add a little water or stock instead.
Try it today with our beautiful fresh borlotti beans!
In the press: Wild Strawberries
The Culinary Guide had the pleasure of tasting our Fraises Des Bois – Wild strawberries this week. You can read the full review below and if you want to see what all the fuss is about, order a punnet today!
Fraises Des Bois – Wild strawberries from Natoora’s delivery service
Written by Lydia Manch – Read it at www.theculinaryguide.co.uk
“Natoora – online shop and food delivery service – have opened their strawberry season with Arzagot Fraises Des Bois. Woodland strawberries, picked in Spain, packed into chilled boxes post-haste and shipped to the UK. Apparently the preferred strawberry of pastry chefs across Europe. They are tiny, they are delicate in flavour. …
Punnet already sounds diminutive, so I have made up the word punnetine to describe just how little this 100g punnet actually was. A small handful. Or maybe a large mouthful. The wild strawberries themselves were equally tiny, which made me feel like a giant with an average-size box of average-size strawberries. I quite liked it, but obviously the trend for tininess is not always something that should be indulged. Case in point, the little dogs that sit in handbags looking embarrassed.
Having now tried them, I can inform you that there’s as much flavour per tiny strawberry as you’d find in a supermarket beastie, which is impressive considering they’re about a quarter of the size. Maybe wild strawberries are better the smaller they are. They don’t make diamonds as big as they make bricks, good things in small packages, etc. They cost £5.95 for a punnetine, but if you want to buy something tiny and expensive then these strawberries are a much better investment than one of the handbag dogs.”
In the press: Nettles
Former River Cafe cook Blanche Vaughan showed us this week that there’s much more to nettles than a nasty sting! You can read the full article online at The Guardian…
Blanche Vaughan’s Nettle Ravioli
“Fresh, young nettles taste delicious. A bit like an intense, rich spinach and they’re full of vitamins. You need to pick just the tops off each plant, where the leaves are at their most tender and once blanched in boiling water, they’re free from the sting. Although, as long as you don’t overcook them, you can still get a little tickle on the tongue.” [...]
“The ones I picked this time became ravioli parcels but for my next picking I thought a risotto or a souflee would be good to try. If you can’t face the nettle bed you can buy them online from www.natoora.co.uk”
Nettle Ravioli
For the pasta:
Makes about 500g
350g 00 pasta flour (Italian fine milled)
A good pinch of salt
1 egg and 2-3 egg yolks (depending on the size)
Fine semolina flour for kneading
Sieve the flour into a big bowl, add the salt then make a well in the middle. Add the whole egg and yolks and mix together until it forms a dough. You can also do this in the magimix. The dough needs to be soft but not sticky and wet. If it’s too wet, add a little more flour and if it’s dry, add another egg yolk.
Sprinkle some semolina flour on a work surface and knead the dough until it’s smooth and stretchy.
Divide into two balls and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
For the ravioli filling:
A carrier bag full of nettles (keep some aside to serve)
200g ricotta cheese
50g parmesan, grated
Nutmeg, to grate
Salt and pepper
To serve:
100g butter
Nettle leaves
Parmesan
Wash the nettles and remove any woody stalks.
In a pan of boiling, salted water, cook the nettles for a couple of minutes until they soften and wilt. Drain and squeeze out as much of the water as you can. Take out a small handful and set aside. These are to put on top when serving. Roughly chop the others.
In a bowl, mix the ricotta with a fork then add the chopped nettles, parmesan and a grate or two of nutmeg and season well with salt and pepper.
To make the ravioli:
Flour the work surface with the semolina and using a pasta machine, start rolling one ball of the dough through the machine. Start on the highest setting and work down gradually so you end up with smooth, thin dough which reaches each side of the machine.
Spoon little balls of the filling onto the dough, then, with a little water, wet the dough where it will join. Fold it over to cover and carefully squeeze out any air trapped in the parcels before sealing. Cut each parcel into a little rectangle to make your individual raviolis.
Repeat this until you have used all your filling. If you have any dough left over, you can keep it in the fridge for a few days to use for something else.
In a saucepan, melt the butter and add the nettle leaves you kept aside. Allow the butter to start foaming before you take it off the heat.
Cook the ravioli in a pan with plenty of boiling, salted water for about 3 minutes. Drain and put on a plate with the melted butter and nettle leaves poured over with a grate of parmesan.
Thanks Blanche we’ll definitely be trying this one out! Don’t forget you can buy these beauties online here and it’s well worth checking back on the Guardian’s allotment blog for plenty of delicious recipes from amazing chefs and growers. We hope to hear more from Blanche soon!
In the press: Amalfi Lemons
“The Best Italian Ingredients” by Jonray and Peter Iglesias-Sanchex, Casamia, Bristol.
Jonray and Peter took over their father’s Italian restaurant (Casamia, Bristol) in 2006. They recently reviewed their favourite Italian essentials for Olive Magazine and had a few kind words to say about our zesty Amalfi Lemons…
Amalfi Lemons
“Known as the ‘queen of lemons’, they grow along the Amalfi coast. The sunshine and volcanic soil help to develop their unique taste and appearence; they’re paler than normal waxed lemons and have a fresh, sweet flavour. They’re also known for their thick skin. Preserved, the lemons can go in sweet and savoury dishes or be eaten straight from the jar.” (Olive Magazine, May 2010)
Got your mouth watering? Buy these zingy delights online today!
Masterclass Sauces: How to make Mayonnaise
Continuing our sandwich week theme we thought it was about time we all learnt to make that sarnie must have – mayonnaise! Mayo is a cold emulsified sauce made from egg yolks and oil blended together and flavoured with vinegar, salt, pepper and mustard. It is a great sauce to learn as it also provides the base for other favourites such as andalouse, and tartare.
In order to make a succesful mayonnaise it’s important that all the ingredients are at the same temperature. Don’t panic though if it curdles, you can rectify by adding this mixture little by little to another egg yolk with a pinch of mustard and a few drops of vinegar or water.
Mayonnaise Recipe
Prepare all ingredients to be at room temperature:
2 egg yolks (plus one on the side in case the sauce curdles!)
Vinegar or lemon juice if preferred
1 teaspoon of white mustard (optional)
300ml olive oil
(these need around half an hour to reach room temperature)
Put the eggs, a pinch of salt and pepper and the mustard powder in a medium bowl. Stir quickly with a wooden spoon or a whisk until the mixture is smooth.
Then use a tablespoon to add the oil, drop by drop, and a few drops of vinegar (or lemon juice). Make sure to beat the sauce against the sides of the bowl, the whiteness of the sauce depends on the continued beating.
As the volume of the sauce increases, larger quantities of oil can be added in a thin trickle and also more vinegar (or lemon). It’s essential to add the ingredients sparingly to avoid curdling!
This is the basic mayo. Now if you’re feeling adventurous try adding anything from anchovy paste to garlic, mustard, watercress or even caviar!
Natoora’s Top Five Sandwich Fillers
To celebrate British Sandwich week (9th-15th May) and our love for a delectable sarnie, we’ve put together our top five Natoora sandwich fillers.
For those of you who didn’t know, an Englishman by the apt title of the Fourth Earl of Sandwich ‘invented’ the sandwich after he asked someone to bring him some meat between a couple of slices of bread. Over the course of that particular day his friends and peers adopted the expression “I’ll have what Sandwich is having” and eventually, people would just ask for “a Sandwich”.
Ok, history lesson over. Now for the yummy bit: Here are our five favourite fillers to entice the taste buds and inspire your lunchtime.
1) French Cheese and Farmhouse Pickle
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Cheese and pickle is of course a classic sandwich, and one that many appreciate. However, it doesn’t have to be just be cheddar and a certain large, household pickle brand. Why not try some Raclette which is made from cow’s milk and has a firm texture, and our traditional farmhouse pickle as the perfect accompaniment. |
2) Prosciutto Cotto and Honey Mustard
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Again a timeless classic, you simply can’t go wrong with a ham and mustard sandwich. You can, however, make it even more right by upgrading to prosciutto cotto for a delicate flavour, topped off with our coarse grain honey mustard to give a welcomed sweet kick. |
3) Roast Pork and Gherkin
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Now, before you think this is only fitting for a craving pregnant woman, this wonderful porchetta and Cornichons Maille sandwich is absolutely delicious. The pork is flavoured with herbs and spices, which blend perfectly with the crunchy and saltiness of the gherkin. Go on, you know you want to try it! |
4) Steak and Oak Leaf
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Most people only enjoy a steak sandwich when dining out, but this is one palatable filler than should be appreciated more in the home. Try our quality, free-range Scottish steak, which has been expertly reared according to traditional methods, and some soft green lettuce with distinctive ‘Oak leaf‘ shaped leaves. You’ll love the richness of the meat colliding with the nutty leafy taste. Whose mouth is watering now? |
5) ‘Posh’ Pate de Campagne and Peach Chutney
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We just had to include our very own posh sandwich, or ‘open sandwich’, for those with exceptionally good taste and like to indulge in something special every now and then. Try our fabulous Coarse Basque Paté from la Ferme Elizaldia, with a hint of red chilli pepper, and our zesty Victorian peach chutney with a hint of cinnamon to dine in true style. |
Naturally these tasty fillers are incomplete without bread, so why not check out our offerings from the aromatic Natoora bakery. Whether you choose a masterful loaf of Poilane sourdough bread or an artisan bake baguette, we can deliver straight to your door – freshly baked the morning that we prepare your order!